teach me how to rise
by Aeoin
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto is raised by Konoha's ANBU, leading to an emotionally stunted, if highly skilled, child. Fuuinjutsu!Naruto


The most crucial time in a child's development is between two to five years old.

By two years old, the child should be able to walk upright and talk. Language development in a toddler depends on a lot of factors, but nature (genes) and nurture (environment), if all factors are normal, determine this fifty-fifty. By three years old, the child's neurons have fully matured. Theoretically, the number of neurons the child possesses at age three can no longer be replenished until death. By age four, the child's ego begins asserting itself. By age five, if all factors are normal, the child's superego surfaces.

In the case of Uzumaki Naruto, all factors were _not_ normal.

By two years old, Uzumaki Naruto could read and had enough fine motor skills to carefully flip books and unravel delicate scrolls hundreds of years old. He still, however, could not walk or stand upright. By age three, Naruto could decode complex messages, write in a steady hand, and accurately sketch an inanimate object with more finesse than adults decades older than him, but he still wasn't potty trained.

By age four, when the Sandaime Hokage finally looked up from his paperwork and took his eyes off the steadily rebuilding village, Uzumaki Naruto could comprehend Jounin-level jutsu but did not know how to smile. It was at around this time coincidentally, that the Sandaime Hokage in his wisdom, realized that the ANBU Specialized Black Ops unit was _not_ a good place (or a good set of people) to raise an impressionable child. But it was too late.

By age five, Uzumaki Naruto tested 140+ in the standardized IQ tests, had Jounin-level chakra capacity (which was still growing), and could perfectly answer Chuunin-level arithmetics, but he did not know how to _talk_.

The Hokage, understandably furious at the ANBU for this grievous oversight in the rearing of the village Jinchuuriki, was now facing the dilemma of how to raise Naruto, and whom to leave the duties of said raising _to_.

"I suggest village integration, Hokage-sama," Bear said.

It was September, and Naruto would turn six in two months. The Hokage stood in the open courtyard of the ANBU headquarters, observing the leaves of the sole tree planted in the area. They were turning orange.

Uzumaki Naruto, the object of his concern, was sitting beneath it. A scroll was open on his lap. From where he stood next to ANBU agent Bear a few meters away, the child looked comically small against the stark relief of the giant tree and the large scroll.

"Do you suggest, Bear," grumbled the Hokage, "That we let Naruto raise _himself_?"

"Naruto-kun can learn nothing more from us, Hokage-sama, not until he matures physically," Bear said.

"I did not leave him here to be _trained_, Bear, but to be raised! Naruto is a child! He was supposed to learn childish things, and play with childish toys, but instead, he's doing half the job I pay my Intelligence department for!"

Bear remained silent, but there was a stubborn set to his shoulders that the Hokage did not miss.

"You are forgetting yourself, _ninja,"_ the Sandaime said dangerously.

"With all due respect, Hokage-sama," Bear said, his youthful voice unwavering, "ANBU performed the duties you had given us."

There was silence between Hokage and ANBU.

"Yes," the Sandaime said quietly. He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a tobacco stick. Placing the stick between his teeth, he produced a small _katon_ and lit it. "Of this, I cannot disagree. The ANBU has not failed my orders..."

The Sandaime raised his head and exhaled. Smoke drifted lazily in the cold air and dissipated. Across them in the courtyard, he saw Naruto swat a fly away, before going back to the scroll he'd been perusing.

"My orders had been to protect young Naruto," the Hokage said, "To protect him, I had said. Indeed, the ANBU has performed its duty…"

Above them, a messenger hawk flew past, no doubt on its way to the T&I building just a few blocks from ANBU headquarters.

"…but only _just,"_ said the Hokage, "I'm not quite sure you understand the _gravity_ of the situation, Bear, being so young yourself."

Bear stiffened.

"You don't seem to see anything wrong with the boy—"

"Naruto-kun is perfectly capable—" Bear started.

"Such insolence," the Hokage said. There was an edge of warning to his words, an edge that the Sandaime's dead enemies knew was sharper than Iron Country steel. Bear bent one knee, knowing that he'd been subversive to his Hokage.

There was silence. Several minutes passed as the Hokage finished his tobacco. Bear dared not move, frozen in his kneeled position.

"As I was saying, Bear," the Hokage said, sounding almost amiable, "You don't see anything wrong with the boy."

The Hokage paused, but Bear didn't interrupt him a second time.

"But this must also be because you, yourself, had such a lacking childhood," the Hokage said. "Tell me, Bear, why Naruto is, as you say, perfectly capable."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Bear said, still kneeling with his head bowed, "Uzumaki Naruto can read, write, and perform better than most Chuunin and some Jounin academically. He can analyze decoded messages and can unravel them more adeptly than most of the Chuunin employed in the Information Division. He is also capable of cleaning up after himself, and he possesses rudimentary culinary skills, more than enough to sustain—"

"But can he _talk_?" The Hokage thundered, "Does he know _any_ human facial expressions? The child only learned to walk last year, when he was _four_, Bear! How can you _possibly_ consider Naruto well-adjusted enough to _live on his own_? Is he even _potty trained_? He's almost _six_! The ANBU has protected him, yes, but ANBU has failed to raise him! _I_ have failed him, and Konoha demands his death in its streets and his dehumanization in its _shadows_! At this point, I'm surprised I didn't just hand him over to Danzo when he'd asked—"

The Hokage cut his tirade off to inhale deeply. There was silence between the two ninjas observing young Uzumaki Naruto, who remained seemingly incognizant of the conversation about him.

"The child is stunted," the Hokage continued with far more calm, "His I.Q. is unparalleled by any of his age, but he can't talk. The ANBU has not taught him how. As I understand it, however, the child is fluent in the specialized sign language that the ANBU use. The boy barely has any facial expressions. How could he? When all he sees for faces are blank masks? High I.Q. and low E.Q… it will not be the first time our village has had geniuses of his making, but it is certainly a first for the village's ANBU to raise such a child."

The Hokage turned wizened eyes towards his young subordinate, "Tell me, Bear, what other skills the child possesses. Does he know any taijutsu?"

Behind his mask, Bear frowned, "We have recently started training him in the standard Leaf Taijutsu that is taught to all academy students, but he seems to be struggling with it. He lacks the motor skills needed for the art."

"That is understandable. He has, after all, only learned how to walk last year. Tell me about this. Why the late development? It is not like an Uzumaki child to be so still."

"That may be because he was left with reading material all within his reach," mused the ANBU agent, "In the beginning, the child was restless. He started crawling at the appropriate age. His development was like stunted when he started learning how to read, and very shortly after, learning the decryption keys from the Intelligence department. I blame Snake for that."

The Hokage snorted. There was a reason young Mitarashi Anko, codename Snake, had not lasted long in ANBU. She was now happily sequestered in the Torture and Interrogation Division, reaping the benefits of Naruto's early training in intelligence decryption.

"When he showed tremendous aptitude for decryption analysis, Snake started giving him her most highly encoded pieces of information to work on. He has never failed to decode any of her assignments to date. It takes him an astonishingly short while, as well. The child finds them unchallenging."

Hiruzen raised an impressed eyebrow, "If it takes him such a short while to break the code, then what is he always preoccupied with?" he said, motioning to the nearly comatose Naruto beneath the tree. He was so still, and all his attention was riveted on the gigantic scroll (relative to his size, anyway) he was perusing. Were it not for his eyes and the steady rise and fall of his chest, Sarutobi would have thought him paralyzed.

If it wasn't prohibited, ANBU Bear would have sighed expressively. As such, he only paused meaningfully before he said, "Fuuinjutsu."

"Fuuinjutsu?" parroted the Hokage, "How far along is he in his studies?"

"Undefinable, Hokage-sama. As you know, fuuinjutsu is a creationist art. The true test of skill lies in what the practitioner can make out of the script, but Naruto-kun seems to be devouring the fuuinjutsu texts available in the ANBU library. I'm afraid Inu-sempai is to blame for this one."

"Inu?" the Hokage mused, surprised at the revelation, "Inu, to my knowledge, has never been assigned to the boy. His skills have always been needed outside the village."

Indeed, Inu's brand of deadliness was something the village took advantage of shamelessly. Poor Hatake Kakashi, codename Inu, was sent on a truly nauseating amount of assassination missions. He was too skilled to be stuck in-village for long.

"How did he find time for that?" thought the Sandaime out loud.

"Inu-sempai spends what little free time he has with Naruto-kun," Bear said quietly, "He was the one who started teaching him fuuinjutsu. From what Inu-sempai tells me, Naruto-kun has already surpassed him in his studies, but he has yet to create any seals of his own. He seems to be consuming theory first before attempting any."

"Does he already possess the fine motor skills necessary, then?" asked the Sandaime, curious. The boy had only learned how to walk last year, after all. A five-year-old child, no matter how close he was to being six, still lacked the necessary muscle control in his hands to write the delicate scripts fuuinjutsu requires. This was, of course, if the child was normal.

"Naruto-kun practices as much as he can," said Bear, "His calligraphy is improving rapidly, from what I can see, but it's not good enough yet for the boy, despite Inu-sempai's assurances that his penmanship is ready."

The Sandaime hummed and took another drag from his softly burning tobacco. Releasing the smoke, he continued to observe young Naruto studying and saw the shadow of another genius behind him, although his father, Namikaze Minato, had not started learning the art so young. Hiruzen wondered what the boy could accomplish given his apparent genius and his earlier head start.

"And his speech?" queried the Hokage, "Why has he not started talking yet? Is he potty trained?"

"Naruto-kun is, of course, potty trained," said Bear with a hint of indignation in his posture, "But as for why he hasn't started talking yet, I believe his early childhood to be the cause. The ANBU never talked while handling him from before he was three years old. We have only started talking to him recently when we were teaching him how to read. I believe Naruto-kun _can_ talk, but he prefers to use the ANBU sign language instead."

The Hokage hummed again as he continued to ponder the village Jinchuuriki. There was nothing for it. The child needed to attend the Academy soon, beginning January of next year. He was but a few months away before Naruto needed to be reintegrated back into the village, and the Sandaime could now see that the child would either have to sink or swim. Life inside ANBU was vastly different from life outside of it, and Naruto had never even met other children his age in his short life. He would have to be eased into it, much to the Hokage's irritation (all aimed at himself). Why had he not had the boy placed in an orphanage? At least there he would have had a semblance of a normal life.

What Bear just told him sounded all good on paper. Naruto was starting to learn taijutsu, could read, write, was even doing ANBU-level decryption and was ahead in fuuinjutsu theory—all at the tender age of 5 and ten months—but that did not encompass the still-troubling picture the child presented. He was selectively mute and was no doubt emotionally stunted.

But there was nothing for it. What's done is done. Hiruzen could only hope that Naruto would be able to learn the necessary emotional skills needed as a human being once he was reintegrated into proper society.

"Come, Bear, introduce me to him," the Sandaime said, making up his mind.

"As the Hokage commands," Bear demurred, then lead the way.

When they reached Naruto, he looked up from his scroll briefly, quickly taking in the visitors before him. Upon first laying eyes on the Sandaime, his eyes widened in surprise. His hands flew in a flurry of movement, motioning towards his own face. Bear refrained from letting loose a guffaw.

He was asking the Hokage why his face was naked.

The Hokage smiled, but inside he felt grief that the child considered animal masks a normal part of everyday attire.

"So is yours, Naruto-kun."

Naruto signed back, _That's because I'm still small and no masks will fit me._

The Hokage sighed, "Being young has nothing to do with it. The masks are part of ANBU attire."

_A-N-B-U_? The child signed.

"Yes, Naruto-kun, the ANBU, or the Special Assassination and Tactics Squad, is an elite force of ninjas that guard and carry out missions for the village. All are highly-skilled individuals. The masks are part of their uniform. Anonymity is of utmost importance among ANBU, that's why their faces are never, as you say, naked."

Naruto nodded seriously, taking this all in. The Sandaime wondered what went on in the young boy's mind and if he was questioning the reason why he was amidst ANBU in the first place.

"Do you know who I am, Naruto-kun?" asked the Sandaime.

Naruto carefully looked him over and gravely shook his head no.

"I am Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato. Do you understand what that means?"

The young lad seemed to think it over before he nodded. His hands moved in a flurry of motion, _It means you are the leader of the village and my utmost commanding officer._

"Yes," Hiruzen said, smiling at Naruto, who couldn't seem to take his eyes off his face. It must have been a novel experience for him, having someone with a "naked" face to speak with. "I'm here to check up on you, Naruto-kun."

_Me?_ The boy signed, pointing to his noise rather comically, if rather expressionlessly.

"Yes, you. I'm here to see if you're ready to attend the academy this January, Naruto-kun."

The boy seemed to perk up at that, body language alert and excited. His face, though, remained as blank as ever.

_Why can't I go now?_ Naruto asked.

"Well," the Sandaime hemmed, "You're a bit too young, Naruto-kun. And besides, you can't talk."

There was silence. And then, suddenly—

"Don't be _thilly_, Hokage-_thama,_" Naruto rasped, his voice husky and unused with a clear lisp, "Of _courth_ I can talk. I _juth_ don't like to."

The Hokage was stunned for a good ten seconds before he commented wryly, "I can see that now." Selectively mute indeed.

"It _hurth_ my throat too," Naruto said, his steel-blue eyes now trained unerringly at the unrolled scroll on his lap.

"That's because you don't talk, Naruto," the Sandaime pointed out.

Naruto sent him a blank stare that the Hokage decided was meant to look incredulous (if the little boy knew how to make facial expressions). "But it only _hurth_ when I talk," Naruto said.

"It's supposed to stop hurting when you start talking more," explained Bear tonelessly, "Your vocal cords are underused, and this might have caused it to atrophy."

"Ah," Naruto whispered. He turned steel blue eyes back to the scroll he was reading, his attention once more riveted on the text.

"In any case, Naruto-kun, you're still too young for the academy," the Hokage said, "Besides, they're not accepting students anymore. But in a few months, you'll be able to go. How does that sound?"

Naruto seemed to ponder his words for a few moments before he nodded. He went back to signing, acknowledging the Hokage's question with a distracted, _Okay._

"In the meantime," declared the Hokage, his gaze still on the young lad, "Before you begin school, you're going to be transferred to the orphanage."

_That_ caused a reaction—on both Naruto and Bear. Naruto looked up from what he was reading, his eyes wide with surprise. Bear seemed to go tense, his back straightening even further, an aura of perplexed dismay in his body language.

_O-R-P-H-A-N-A-G-E?_ Naruto signed, spelling the unfamiliar word correctly. _What's that?_

The Hokage sighed, "It's a place for little kids like you, Naruto-kun. A place for children without parents."

There was a stretched silence as Naruto once more pondered his words, _Why am I going there? Why can't I stay here? There are more people like me?_

The Hokage answered his questions one by one. "You're going there so you can know what it's like outside of ANBU. You can't stay here because it's bad for your emotional well-being. And yes, Naruto-kun, although you are a special case, there are children like you outside these walls."

_Small people like me?_ The lad signed.

"Yes," the Hokage smiled sadly, "Young children much like yourself, who you might be friends with."

_F-R-E-N-D-S?_ Naruto signed, spelling the word incorrectly. _What's that?_

The Hokage corrected the young lad's spelling before answering his question, "A friend is a person whom you are close to who you play with, Naruto-kun."

There was once more silence as Naruto thought about the Hokage's answer.

_Bear, Inu, and Snake are my f-r-i-e-n-d-s._ He signed, _I don't want to leave A-N-B-U_.

"Of course they're your friends, Naruto-kun," said the Hokage, "But you still have to leave this place. It's no longer good for you."

Naruto paused, looking down at the scroll he was reading. A normal child would have had a temper tantrum at the Hokage's command. But Naruto, raised by the ANBU, was taught that the mission was paramount.

_As the Hokage commands_, Naruto signed.

The Sandaime hid a deep, grieved sigh, but rallied himself, smiling benignly at the young child, "Good," he said, "I'll be checking up on you periodically, Naruto-kun. I hope you meet lots of kids your age who will become your friends."

The Hokage turned to the ANBU next to him and said, "Get him ready to move, Bear. He moves tomorrow."

Bear saluted, and after saying goodbye to Naruto, the Hokage left ANBU headquarters and reappeared in his office, where the smile on his face dropped immediately. He sat heavily on his chair and sighed, deeply troubled at the state of the young jinchuuriki. He didn't even know what a friend was. It was truly saddening.

Going back to the pile of papers he had left behind, the Hokage once more immersed himself in paperwork, unaware of two factors in his decision to move Uzumaki Naruto to the orphanage:

The first factor was that ANBU personnel were more than just Naruto's caretakers—they were his family. The second factor was the undying grudge people still had towards the village jinchuuriki, who was now being forced away from the only family he's ever known and would be thrown into a hostile environment.

The Hokage wrote on, resolute in his decision, hoping that Naruto would get as normal a childhood as he could in the months before his academy enrollment.

And so the road to hell is paved with good intentions.


End file.
